AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I mulled on it for two sleepless nights. I got snatches of sleep here and there, I wasn’t totally deprived. I’d gotten accustomed to passing out at my desk whenever I felt the urge to rest, then jolting awake an hour or so later and continuing my business. But I had to admit, I was becoming less and less productive the more hours I spent in the office.
In that way, Ria had been right too. I needed to do less. I almost wished Ria could do a card reading for me to help me come up with a plan to topple Apollo, or at least keep him at bay. That’s how I knew even more that she’d managed to get to me. I was considering tarot in my plans.
In the meantime, I’d been continually badgered by my brothers. I responded just enough to get them off my back.
Winston: Honestly, @Forest, are you dead?
Forest: Sadly, I still inhabit this earth
Sylvester: What a tragic response
Sylvester: Do you need a therapist?
Sylvester: Or the world’s smallest violin?
Jude: Elsie can put you in touch with a therapist. The violin, you’re on your own
Sylvester: I can provide the violin. An entire orchestra of them, if you so wish
Winston: Can you play the violin, @Sylvester?
Sylvester: Actually, yes. But it’s a shameful secret
Jude: We’ll take it to our grave
Forest: Along with our guilt, bone-weariness, and inherited wealth
Winston: God, you really are a downer right now @Forest
Winston: Were your jokes always this bleak?
Forest: Only since rumors of my tragic death started circulating amongst my family
Winston: Alright, we can back off
Forest: It’s okay. I’ve just been working on something
Sylvester: Oooooooooh
Sylvester: I love it when you’re working on something
Forest: Don’t get excited. Believe me, you three will be the first to know if I have any exciting news
After the let-down of my previous schemes, I was going to hold my cards (excuse the pun) close to my chest until I had something to show my brothers. I didn’t like to let them down. If that meant I had to pull away a bit, lie just slightly, then so be it.
Gradually, a plan came to me, without the use of fake magic cards to guide my intuition. A plan tailor-made for Apollo’s eccentricities and making full use of Ria’s abilities.
Of course, I couldn’t do the same thing to Apollo as he’d done to me – send Ria in to read his cards. But if he was sending in tarot card readers to try and infiltrate my confidence, maybe I could use Ria as a sort of... double agent. Maybe she could subtly try and infiltrate Apollo’s confidence, too.
And Ria, unknowingly, had sown the seeds of my scheme when she’d chosen the Ace of Cups card to lie to Apollo about what my reading of the ‘future’ had said. It laid the perfect backstory for my plan. If Ria agreed to it.
I sent her a message.
Forest:Ace of Cups.
This was four in the morning. I didn’t expect her to reply. But she came back almost immediately.
Ria:Are you drunk?
